NATIONAL UPDATES:
1. Dharmendra
Pradhan launches reading campaign ‘Padhe Bharat’: Union Education
Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has launched a 100-day reading campaign ‘Padhe
Bharat. The launch of the 100 Days Reading Campaign is in alignment with the
National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 which lays emphasis on the promotion of
joyful reading culture for children by ensuring the availability of
age-appropriate reading books for children in local/mother
tongue/regional/tribal language. The Minister while launching the campaign has
underlined the importance of reading that children need to develop to ensure
continuous and lifelong learning. He also reinforced that the habit of reading,
if inculcated at an early age, helps in brain development and enhances
imagination and provide a conducive learning environment for children.
Padhe Bharat campaign:
(1) Padhe Bharat campaign will focus on
children studying in Balvatika to Grade 8. The reading campaign will be
organized for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from January 1, 2022, to April 10,
2022.
(2) The reading campaign aims to have the
participation of all stakeholders at the national and state level including
children, teachers, parents, community, educational administrators etc.
(3) One activity per week per group has
been designed with the focus on making reading enjoyable and building a
lifelong association with the joy of reading. This campaign has also been
aligned with the vision and goals of the foundational Literacy and Numeracy
mission.
2. PM
Modi to lay foundation stone of Major Dhyan Chand Sports University: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of Major Dhyan Chand Sports
University in Meerut. The University will be established at Salawa and Kaili
villages of Sardhana town in Meerut at an estimated cost of about 700 Crore
rupees. The University will have the capacity of training 1080 sportspersons
including 540 female and 540 male sportspersons.
About the University:
(1) The Sports University will be equipped
with modern and state-of-the-art sports infrastructure including synthetic
Hockey ground, Football ground, Basketball, Volleyball, Handball, Kabaddi
ground, Lawn tennis court, Gymnasium hall, Synthetic running stadium, Swimming
pool, Multipurpose hall, and a Cycling Velodrome.
(2) It will also house facilities for
Shooting, Squash, Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Archery, Canoeing, and Kayaking,
among other facilities with the capacity of training.
3. IIT
Madras bagged the first position in ARIIA Rankings 2021: IIT Madras has
bagged the first position in the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation
Achievements (ARIIA) 2021, for the third consecutive year, under the category
of CFTIs/ Central Universities/ Institute of National Importance (Technical).
The third edition of the ARIIA ranking was dominated by the IITs in the
centrally funded institution category. Seven IITs are on the top-10 list.
IIT-Madras is followed by IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IT Kanpur, and IIT Roorkee.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru bagged the sixth position
in the category.
Other categories Winners:
(1) In the state and deemed to be
universities category, Panjab University (Chandigarh) topped the ranking
followed by Delhi Technological University, and Netaji Subhas University of
Technology (Delhi).
(2) In the government engineering colleges
category, the College of Engineering in Pune stood first, followed by PSG College
of Technology in Tamil Nadu, and LD College of Engineering in Gujarat.
(3) Kalinga Institute of Industrial
Technology Khordha (Odisha) topped the private university category. G H Raisoni
College of Engineering in Maharashtra was recognised as the most innovative
private college.
(4) Indira Gandhi National Open University
(Delhi) topped the category among centrally funded institutions followed by the
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode.
About the 3rd edition of ARIIA: This 3rd edition
of ARIIA has introduced a special framework for non-technical institutions that
further strengthen the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Indian
higher education institutions. A total of 1,438 higher education institutions
(HEIs) including all IITs, NITs, and IISc participated in the third edition of
ARIIA rankings as compared to 674 HEIs during last year.
4. Nirmala
Sitharaman chairs 46th GST council meet in Delhi: The GST Council’s
46th meeting was held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Union Finance
& Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman. The GST Council has
recommended deferring the decision to change the rates in textiles recommended
in the 45th GST Council meeting. Consequently, the existing GST rates of 5 %
instead of 12% in textile sector would continue.
This convention attains special
significance as it comes days ahead of Sitharaman presenting the
much-anticipated Union Budget 2022-23 on February 1, for which she has been
holding a series of pre-budget consultations with stakeholders.
The 2022-23 Union Budget of India will be
presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2022. This will
be the fourth budget of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government in
its second tenure. The 2021-22 budget, presented on 1st February this year, was
the first one to be presented orally due to the ongoing coronavirus disease
(Covid-19) pandemic.
5. 1st
electric boat built for Kochi Water Metro Project: In Kerala, the
first battery-powered electric boat built for the Kochi Water Metro Project was
handed over to the Kochi Metro Rail Limited. The fully air-conditioned boat is
among the 23 boats being built by the Cochin Shipyard for the 747-crore rupee
Kochi Water Metro project. Kochi Water Metro system will have 78 ferries,
linking 38 terminals spread over 76 route kilometres.
The battery-powered water metro boat can
carry 100 passengers. KMRL said it was for the first time in the world a
centrally controlled integrated water transport system with a large fleet is
powered by the battery.
6. UP’s
Jhansi Railway Station renamed as ‘Veerangana Laxmibai Railway Station’: Yogi Adityanath,
Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh has announced that the government of UP has
renamed the Jhansi Railway Station, in Jhansi, UP as “Veerangana Laxmibai
Railway Station” after Rani Laxmibai. The announcement was made by UP Chief
Minister Yogi Adityanath. A notification to this effect has been issued by the
UP government and the Railways has started preparations to implement the
change. Earlier the Mughalsarai Railway station was renamed as Pt. Deen Dayal
Upadhyaya junction and the Faizabad Railway station as Ayodhya Cantt.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1. World’s
longest Metro line opened in China: Shanghai has opened two new metro lines,
upholding its rank as the city with the largest Metro network in the world.
With the new lines, the total length of Shanghai’s metro network has extended
to 831 km, continuing to be the longest in the world. China’s Shanghai opened
two new metro lines – Line 14 and Phase One of Line 18. The opening of the two
new lines will bring the total number of fully automatic metro lines in
Shanghai to five, with an operating length of 167 km, ranking first in the
world for the first time. The city will now enjoy 20 metro lines with 508
stations, 83 of which are transfer ones.
2. China
launches 5-year plan to become a hub of world robotics innovation: China has announced
a five-year roadmap to achieve its goal of becoming a global robotics
innovation hub by the year 2025. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology revealed operating income from the country’s robotics industry is
expected to grow by around 20% per year between 2021 and 2025. From 2016 to
2020, the sector expanded at an average growth rate of 15%. Last year,
operating income surpassed 100 billion yuan ($15.69 billion) for the first
time. To achieve its goal by 2025 of becoming a worldwide robotics innovation
centre, China has proposed a strategy concentrating on improvements to
essential components such as servo motors and control panels. As per the 2021
World Robot Report, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan were the top three most
automated countries in Asia-Pacific.
3.
World Day of War Orphans: 6th January:
World Day of War Orphans is marked on 6 January to create awareness
about the plight of children who have lost their parents due to conflict. In
any conflict, children are one of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups
present. Children who have been injured in a gunfight or separated from their
families require particular care in order to heal the mental wounds of war,
begin school, and restart normal life.
World Day of War Orphans 2022
History:
World Day of War Orphans was started by the French organisation SOS Enfants en
Detresses, which aimed to help children affected by conflict. According to the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), an orphan is defined as a “child under
18 years of age who has lost one or both parents to any cause of death”.
World Day of War Orphans 2022
Significance:
On World Day of War Orphans, several awareness programmes are organised to
create awareness about the trauma endured by orphaned children. The coronavirus
pandemic has further led to issues like food insecurity and access to basic
health and sanitation facilities for many children worldwide. World Day of War
Orphans is marked as a reminder of the issues faced by such children and to
remind the world of its responsibility to ensure that such kids also get equal
access to health and educational opportunities.
OTHER UPDATES:
SPORTS
1.
NewZealand’s Ross Taylor announces retirement from international cricket: Veteran New Zealand
batter, Ross Taylor has announced retirement from international cricket at the
end of the ongoing domestic season. Taylor hence will play his final appearance
in the second Test against Bangladesh, where will equal Daniel Vettori’s record
of 112 tests for New Zealand. He will be part of the one-day international
series in Australia. He is the first cricketer to play more than 100 matches
for New Zealand in all 3 formats.
2.
Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez announces retirement from cricket: Pakistani
all-rounder, Mohammad Hafeez has announced his retirement from international
cricket on January 03, 2022, to end his career spanning more than 18 years. The
41-year-old Hafeez retired from Test cricket in December 2018. He has played 55
Tests, 218 ODIs and 119 T20Is for Pakistan, scoring 12,780 runs across formats.
He is nicknamed “The Professor”.
BANKING AND FINANCE
1.
SBI Card joined hands with Paytm for Card Tokenization: SBI Cards and
Payment Services has tied up with Paytm for card tokenisation to protect the
data of the cardholders. SBI Card has collaborated with Paytm to enable
cardholders to tokenise their cards on devices and make payments through Paytm.
Tokenisation refers to masking the original card number by replacing it with a
set of unique characters, termed as token, which secures the customer’s card
details when a transaction is under process. Currently, only cards issued in
the Indian territory are enabled on the Paytm network. However, customers may
transact using his/her SBI Card through the Paytm network in international
locations.
Note: SBI Card Headquarters: Gurugram,
Haryana; SBI Card Managing Director & CEO: Rama Mohan Rao Amara.
2.
RBI extended deadline for Periodic KYC Update till March 31, 2022: The Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) has announced that it has extended the deadline for periodic KYC
updates by 3 months till March 31, 2022. Extension in view of prevalent
uncertainty due to a new variant of COVID-19 – Omicron. Earlier the deadline
for periodic KYC updates was December 31.
Meanwhile, the government has also extended
the deadline for businesses to file GST annual returns for the 2020-21 fiscal
ended March 2021 by two months till February 28. GSTR 9 is an annual return to
be filed yearly by taxpayers registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
It consists of details regarding the outward and inward supplies made or
received under different tax heads.
Note: Reserve Bank of India Founded: April
1, 1935; Reserve Bank of India Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra; Reserve Bank
of India Governor: Shaktikanta Das.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMY
1.
Tech Mahindra to acquire 100 percent stake in Allyis India, Green Investments: Tech Mahindra has
approved a proposal for the acquisition of a 100 per cent stake in Allyis India
and Green Investments, for a total consideration of up to USD 125 million. The
acquisition will bolster Tech Mahindra’s capabilities in Digital Experience
Solutions, Learning & Development, Marketing, Instructional Design; Engineering:
Cloud & Automation, BI & Analytics, Technical support services.
Tech Mahindra will pay total consideration
of up to $125 million, including employment-related and performance-related
earnouts, as per a regulatory update filed with the exchanges. Allyis India Pvt
Ltd and Green Investments LLC offer technology consulting and managed services
for organisations to help reduce costs, improve performance, and meet their
objectives. Allyis India Pvt Ltd was incorporated in 2018 whole Green
Investments LLC was incorporated in 2013.
Note: Tech Mahindra CEO: C. P. Gurnani;
Tech Mahindra Headquarters: Pune; Tech Mahindra Founder: Anand Mahindra; Tech
Mahindra Founded: 1986.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
1.
Danish Siddiqui gets posthumously Mumbai Press Club’s RedInk Award 2020: Photojournalist
Danish Siddiqui, who died during an assignment in Afghanistan, has been
posthumously awarded as the ‘Journalist of the Year’ for 2020 by the Mumbai
Press Club. CJI N V Ramana presented the annual ‘RedInk Awards for Excellence in
Journalism’. He presented the prestigious award to Siddiqui “for his spectrum
of investigative and impactful news photography”. Danish Siddiqui’s wife
Frederike Siddiqui received the award.
Senior journalist Prem Shankar Jha, 83, was bestowed with the lifetime achievement award “for his long and distinguished career of incisive and analytical writing”. The Mumbai Press Club instituted The RedInk Awards a decade ago to recognise good investigative and feature writing and raise the bar of journalism in the country.
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